Caribbean Diaspora in the USA: Diversity of Caribbean Religions in New York City

Variations of Caribbean Culture(s) in New York City 9
the composition of migrant groups has changed in the last decades, as has the ethnic
composition of New York City. In former times Italians topped the list of the largest
immigrant groups in New Yorker statistics; since the 1970s Dominicans have been at
the top of the local list (though Mexicans are ahead in national statistics). Emigrants
arrive in New York City from other Caribbean islands too. In sum, 33 per cent of all
immigrants in the 1990s have been from the Caribbean (though in the national statistics
immigrants from the Caribbean amount to only 12 per cent; New York City Department
of City Planning 1996: 7), and most of them find a place to live in Brooklyn. 2
The change is a result of the Immigration and Nationality Act (1965), which
reconsidered the quota for immigration visas (Kraly 1987: 41ff.). The Caribbean in
particular, with its high number of small but independent countries, gained from the
new Act. Before 1965, the immigrants were overwhelmingly European and male, often
without any training. After 1965, the majority arrived from new countries, especially
from the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia, consisting of more women and a higher
percentage of educated and trained people than before (Foner 1987: 2–3). However,
we have to consider that these statistics only refer to people getting immigration visas,
excluding, for instance, people arriving with tourist or student visas as well as Puerto
Ricans who are US citizens and do not count as immigrants.
Nevertheless, there are important characteristics of the New York Caribbean
community that we can learn about from the statistics. One relates indirectly to the
New York Caribbeans, referring to the changed racial composition of the population
of New York City: because the number of people belonging to the group of non-
Hispanic Whites fell from 63 per cent in 1970 to 35 per cent in 2000 (New York City
Department of City Planning 1996: 3), 3 Caribbean people who are generally counted
as Black or Hispanic already belong to the majority in New York City. Another aspect
refers to the place of birth: the majority of people in the Caribbean community in
New York City were born outside the USA, which influences the stratification of
New York City which becomes (again) a city of immigrants. In 1990 30 per cent
of the inhabitants of New York City were born outside the USA, and this statistical
tendency is increasing. 4 The only group that represents a different development is the
group of Puerto Ricans. In 1990 the majority of Puerto Ricans in New York were born
in one of the US states and not on the island as before (Department of City Planning
1994: 21). Another interesting aspect of these statistics refers to the next generation:
every second child of Caribbean migrants is born in the USA, and therefore has US
2 While the first groups of immigrants from the Caribbean settled in the neighbourhood
of African-Americans in Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant, since the 1970s they have looked
to Crown Heights, East Flatbush and Flatbush for a place to live, in the centre of Brooklyn
(Kasinitz 1995: 55).
3 According to another statistic these numbers had already been reached. Before 1965
non-Hispanic Whites accounted for 73.1 per cent of the population of New York, in 1980 the
figure was only 25.7 per cent; meanwhile the number of non-Hispanic Blacks increased from
8.4 per cent before 1965 to 23.4 per cent in 1980, while the group of Asians increased from
4.3 per cent to 22.7 per cent and the group of Hispanics from 13.9 per cent to 27.4 per cent
(see Bogen 1987: 40).
4 For instance, 82 per cent of people with Jamaican descent and 88 per cent of people
with Trinidadian descent were born outside the USA in the 1980s (Youssef 1992: 6, 62).